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Corridor Los Lagos > Province: Neuquén > San Martín de los Andes

Che Museum in La Pastera

Mónica Pons

Eduardo Epifanio

At La Pastera or Che Museum, a space is offered to commemorate the life of a Latin American fighter and free thinker.

La Pastera, Che Museum in San Martín de los Andes

In San Martín de los Andes, it is natural to hear, both from old and new dwellers, the word “che”, meaning “people”, “person”, “man”, in the Mapuche tongue, spoken by the first humans who settled down in the area.

A museum recently inaugurated in the district, also refers to Che, but this has a different origin: a very well-known Argentinian turned into an international figure. Ernesto Guevara Lynch. Famous for his struggle for the oppressed people, he paid a fleeting visit to San Martín de los Andes in 1952. That is his relation to this town.

La Pastera, The Che Museum, is located on the same block as the building housing the National Park Administration Office, in the urban shell. Che visited the district in 1952 and this homage was created in June 2008.

Inaugurated in June 2008 in the very center of the city and lying on the same block as the building housing the National Park Administration Office, La Pastera or Che Museum has a space of its own, where it pays homage to this popular character.

Before that, La Pastera used to be a place of encounter for intellectuals, craftsmen and musicians whose perseverance prevented this place from disappearing or having another purpose.

Touring around Yesterday

We paid a visit and could appreciate the central theme of Che Guevara’s life and thought in the various locations where he struggled. There are panels with excellent famous and unknown photographs that give account of his bibliography, his travels around Latin America and Central Africa.

We learned about his armed fight side by side with other revolutionary men to overthrow Fulgencio Batista’s regime on the island of Cuba. We found out that he was a head of the Cuban army and of the agriculture department in the new administration. He also fought for the workers and the youths together with Fidel Castro and other comrades.

In the next room, some panels displayed the change of scene and his trip to Bolivia, where he led some revolutionary groups that finally ended in his own death. The printed posters are presented in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

A primitive wooden staircase led us to the site where Ernesto Guevara and his partner Alberto Granado were lodged during their brief visit to San Martín de los Andes.

Secrets of History

Grass bales for the horses ridden by the park rangers in the old days used to be kept in this attic.

The last room offers copies of Che Guevara’s diaries and works written by other thinkers. Both this books and the audiovisual material in the museum were donated by Cuban entities.

Guided tours let visitors learn more about this mythical character born in Argentina and turned into an inhabitant of Cuba.

We were welcomed by Julia Rivón, director of the museum: “La Pastera already was a place of encounter and this must continue. Let it become alive and foster action among youths. Cuban organizations and entities from other Argentinian provinces have already made their contributions and there is a project to gather information and bibliography to add more material to what is offered today”. Those were her words.

The Mapuche “che” and “Che” Guevara, a nickname given to this character for the only fact to have been born in Argentina, co-exist here.